Objective: The goal of this project is to develop
methods for identifying lands on and around military bases that
provide high connective value for suites of species of management
concern. Using a set of rare, threatened, and endangered species
with divergent life histories (red-cockaded woodpeckers, St. Francis’
satyr butterflies, Carolina gopher frogs, and tiger salamanders),
we will develop a system for multiple-criteria optimization of habitat
connectivity management. We will accomplish this by integrating
field observations of animal movement, movement models, and habitat
and landscape models, in a spatially explicit analysis framework.
The widely varying life histories of the species we propose to study
are reflective of the actual conservation challenges faced on and
around many DoD installations. A key outcome of the proposed research
is a spatially explicit decision support system for managing habitat
connectivity for multiple taxa within the context of land-use, land-management,
and land procurement objectives, constraints, and opportunities
on and around DoD installations. This framework will be developed
at Ft. Bragg, NC, and tested at Camp Lejeune, NC.